Computer Strangeness

[littlebeast13]

When I log on and open up IE, it takes about 2-3 minutes for it to load... and it's not that it loads slowly... it just sits for all that time with a white screen and then finally my home page comes up. The same thing happens anytime I try to open a new window, or click on a link that opens up a new window....

Once the page finally loads, it works perfectly fine. No lag, no slowness, no nothing. The delay only happens when the window is first opened.

Any computer gurus know what might be going on?

lb13

[mrkelley23]

My usual approach in these cases is to loudly curse Bill Gates, then begin trying all the generic fixes I know.

See if there's a Windoze update you might be missing.

Dump cache.

Reboot.

Delete Unnecessary Temp files.

Reboot again.

Run Spyware Checker and virus scan.

Reboot again.


There are people here who will be more helpful, I"m sure.

[peacock2121]

Get a black computer. When I changed from black to white, all of my problems went away.

[Bob Juch]

When I log on and open up IE, it takes about 2-3 minutes for it to load... and it's not that it loads slowly... it just sits for all that time with a white screen and then finally my home page comes up. The same thing happens anytime I try to open a new window, or click on a link that opens up a new window....

Once the page finally loads, it works perfectly fine. No lag, no slowness, no nothing. The delay only happens when the window is first opened.

Any computer gurus know what might be going on?

lb13

I suspect it might be your virus/spyware protection software. What do you use?

[littlebeast13]

When I log on and open up IE, it takes about 2-3 minutes for it to load... and it's not that it loads slowly... it just sits for all that time with a white screen and then finally my home page comes up. The same thing happens anytime I try to open a new window, or click on a link that opens up a new window....

Once the page finally loads, it works perfectly fine. No lag, no slowness, no nothing. The delay only happens when the window is first opened.

Any computer gurus know what might be going on?

lb13

I suspect it might be your virus/spyware protection software. What do you use?

Norton, but I've had some version of that for several years without any problems like this....

lb13

[Bob Juch]

When I log on and open up IE, it takes about 2-3 minutes for it to load... and it's not that it loads slowly... it just sits for all that time with a white screen and then finally my home page comes up. The same thing happens anytime I try to open a new window, or click on a link that opens up a new window....

Once the page finally loads, it works perfectly fine. No lag, no slowness, no nothing. The delay only happens when the window is first opened.

Any computer gurus know what might be going on?

lb13

I suspect it might be your virus/spyware protection software. What do you use?

Norton, but I've had some version of that for several years without any problems like this....

lb13

How about any IE toolbars?

Have you run a non-Norton spyware scanner?

[Sir_Galahad]

Get a black computer. When I changed from black to white, all of my problems went away.

LOL. That's great, Pea! Although, did you mean change from white to black perhaps?

[littlebeast13]

I suspect it might be your virus/spyware protection software. What do you use?

Norton, but I've had some version of that for several years without any problems like this....

lb13

How about any IE toolbars?

Have you run a non-Norton spyware scanner?

Nope. And I haven't added a thing lately...

Since it started the evening before last, I thought it might be storm related since my service is through my cable company (and the cable was off part of that night), but I think it's a computer issue....

lb13

[Bob Juch]

I'd have to run a process monitor to be able to tell you more.

[Sir_Galahad]

Are you using IE6 or IE7? Which version of Windows?

[silvercamaro]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

[Bob Juch]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

Neither of those would make your computer run faster and actually would make things slow down as more data would have to be transferred from the Net!

[silvercamaro]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

Neither of those would make your computer run faster and actually would make things slow down as more data would have to be transferred from the Net!

I don't doubt your expertise. It still helps more often than it doesn't.

[fantine33]

IE has taken a long time to load ever since I caved to the increasing demands and upgraded to IE 7. I only use it if I can't do something in Opera, though.

[littlebeast13]

Are you using IE6 or IE7? Which version of Windows?

7, and I think Windows XP (I had to look up the former too, so that shows you how much I know about computer stuff....)

lb13

[littlebeast13]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

If it were just a problem of slowness, I'd assume something was clogging the works. But after the long delay in a window loading for the first time, it works just as fast as it usually does (I have been off & on 2 different windows all morning that I first opened about 4 hours ago, and have not had a single slowness issue since I opened them for the first time). I don't know why just the initial loading of a new window would take so long without the normal performance being affected....

lb13

[fantine33]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

If it were just a problem of slowness, I'd assume something was clogging the works. But after the long delay in a window loading for the first time, it works just as fast as it usually does (I have been off & on 2 different windows all morning that I first opened about 4 hours ago, and have not had a single slowness issue since I opened them for the first time). I don't know why just the initial loading of a new window would take so long without the normal performance being affected....

lb13

You know, it might have something to do with 7 and XP. I have the same thing, initial loading takes several minutes, after that it's okay. That's on my laptop with XP, but it doesn't take nearly as long on my new one with Vista, although I just assumed that was because it had more oomph (which probably plays a role in it as well).

[littlebeast13]

When my computer becomes slow, I do two things --

1. Empty the internet cache through "control panel", and

2. Run AdAware to get rid of sneaky tracking cookies.

This helps more often than it doesn't. I always try the easy fixes first.

If it were just a problem of slowness, I'd assume something was clogging the works. But after the long delay in a window loading for the first time, it works just as fast as it usually does (I have been off & on 2 different windows all morning that I first opened about 4 hours ago, and have not had a single slowness issue since I opened them for the first time). I don't know why just the initial loading of a new window would take so long without the normal performance being affected....

lb13

You know, it might have something to do with 7 and XP. I have the same thing, initial loading takes several minutes, after that it's okay. That's on my laptop with XP, but it doesn't take nearly as long on my new one with Vista, although I just assumed that was because it had more oomph (which probably plays a role in it as well).

The only problem is I've been using IE7 for about a year now (maybe longer... can't remember when it came out, but I was about 2 or 3 months behind in letting Microcrap install it).

My mom has a laptop with IE7 and XP, and it's slow as all getout.... though it was pretty much just as slow when it had 6....

lb13

[gsabc]

Has your home page changed its graphics recently? That includes any funky animated ads and banners. It sounds like your computer is having trouble processing the initial download. Once everything is in the IE cache, it would be faster.

[mrkelley23]

If you have "automatic updates" turned on, you may have just recently upgraded to IE7 without even knowing it. Your saying you had to check which version it was makes me a little suspicious of that, although IE7 looks enough different from 6 that it probably would have bothered you.

The initial loading slowdown is what makes me think it is a cache issue. Have you checked your "Virtual memory" status through the control panel? If Windoze is running low on VM, it might cause limited arts of the cache to be available for loading web pages the first time.

The reason it appears to function normally after the first load is that the first time, the image of the page is loaded into the cache. After that, the computer takes a shortcut by refreshing the "snapshot" it took earlier from its cache, then just adds whatever changes have taken place since the last load. Much quicker that way.

[Rexer25]

I bet he still hasn't cursed Bill Gates yet.

[ne1410s]

bet he still hasn't cursed Bill Gates yet.

Sheesh! Don't get the cult riled up.

[Bob Juch]

Has your home page changed its graphics recently? That includes any funky animated ads and banners. It sounds like your computer is having trouble processing the initial download. Once everything is in the IE cache, it would be faster.

Set your home page to blank and see if that's still a problem.

[littlebeast13]

If you have "automatic updates" turned on, you may have just recently upgraded to IE7 without even knowing it. Your saying you had to check which version it was makes me a little suspicious of that, although IE7 looks enough different from 6 that it probably would have bothered you.

Nope, I've had the very different looking IE7 now for about a year.

The initial loading slowdown is what makes me think it is a cache issue. Have you checked your "Virtual memory" status through the control panel? If Windoze is running low on VM, it might cause limited arts of the cache to be available for loading web pages the first time.

The reason it appears to function normally after the first load is that the first time, the image of the page is loaded into the cache. After that, the computer takes a shortcut by refreshing the "snapshot" it took earlier from its cache, then just adds whatever changes have taken place since the last load. Much quicker that way.

But it has nothing to do with visiting a page for the first time.... it only happens when a window opens for the first time. Once the window loads, it operates normally and at normal speed no matter where I go on the internet....

This only sucks when I first log on, and when click a link that opens up a new window (Or I want to do something else without leaving where I am and want to open a new window to do it, which I do a lot)....

lb13

[littlebeast13]

Has your home page changed its graphics recently? That includes any funky animated ads and banners. It sounds like your computer is having trouble processing the initial download. Once everything is in the IE cache, it would be faster.

Set your home page to blank and see if that's still a problem.

I don't think it has anything to do with the home page because anything that first pops up in a new window will cause the same delay.

lb13